


Cell Phones and Pictures

by angelslaugh



Series: Of Mafia and Shinobi [2]
Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!, Naruto
Genre: Character Death, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-20
Updated: 2018-07-20
Packaged: 2019-06-13 06:39:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15358491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelslaugh/pseuds/angelslaugh
Summary: ...and don't forget the idiots.(Or, Naruto dies. Byakuran doesn't. The world changes.)





	Cell Phones and Pictures

**Author's Note:**

> Well. 
> 
> Yeah, I don't know what this is.

_Byakuran darted out from the mansion’s view._

_She was waiting near their grove, her face alight with happiness._

_“We’re leaving,” he told her, his purple eyes shining. “We have the whole world as our oyster!”_

_The orphan who was his soulmate gave him the most breathtaking grin he’d ever seen._

~:~

“Byakuran!” Naruto jumped from the other building, landing in front of him. The other mafia members, come to kill the Sky because he was outside of his Famiglia, turned their sights on her.

“Naruto, go!” She wouldn’t die easily, nothing short of the World’s Greatest Hitman could kill her with a clean shot to the head.

Naruto only smiled, pressing her hands to his wounds and healing it as best as she could.

“This is the least I can do,” she said softly.

Blood splattered across the young man’s face.

He glanced down. She was –

She was…

Byakuran stared at her.

_No…_

Memories, pathways to other realities, entered his mind.

_Not… Again._

But he hadn’t known – he couldn’t have –

His Flames burst free, sending the nearest Active and InActive Elements into Discord. Some people didn’t know, others were very vocal in their sudden Discord.

All Byakuran knew was she was dead, again.

Because of a _lucky shot._

Not that he knew that.

~”~

He tattooed under his eye; a purple mark to serve as a reminder of what he lost.

“You’re an idiot.”

She hung off the edge of the desk, looking annoyed and stern.

“That look never suited you.”

“Tch. It still doesn’t,” she said. “Just because you’re the only one who can see me, doesn’t mean I’m not actually –“

“You’re _dead,”_ Byakuran sighed. “And while I _could_ take you from another reality, you wouldn’t be _mine.”_

“You’ve only been doing a job like this for five years, Byakuran!” she groaned. “When are you going to stop _moping_ and _pining_ and _get over me?”_

“You were my _soulmate.”_

His voice cracked, like it always did.

She hummed and swung her legs. The door opened, yet she didn’t vanish. Her eyes only looked over to the newcomer as Byakuran swung his legs up on his desk and spoke in a sickeningly sweet voice.

This was to destroy Vongola. To destroy what they had taken from him.

His assistant bowed. Naruto hopped off the desk.

“He’s got a Mist-y feel to him.”

“He’s InActive, if you hadn’t noticed. Now, why don’t you go and bug someone _else?”_

There was silence.

He looked up.

It was like his mind had decided to _finally_ get focused, today. Most days it only took a cutting comment here from him to make her vanish.

She was just a figment of his imagination after all.

(Right?)

~:~

 _“It’s only a trip to America. I’ll be back in record time, I_ promise,” _she told him, hugging him._

 _Byakuran smiled. “You better be,_ amatissio.”

_She wrinkled her nose. “You know I don’t understand this world’s many languages.”_

_Byakuran snorted._ “Sposami, _Naruto.”_

_Her confusion made him grin as he leaned to whisper in her ear. “Marry me.”_

_She laughed a little into his shoulder as they swayed to no music, passerby giving them a slightly obvious big space around them; the oblivious couple were actually photographed._

_“That’s not fair,” Byakuran heard her say, moving her head to look at him, a fake pout on her face. “Of course I will, just when I get back from America.”_

_He wanted to demand why she had to go to America, but he already knew. She had to protect someone, someone she couldn’t even tell Byakuran about._

_“I can’t,” she’d say, her eyes hardening almost angrily. “I can’t, Byakuran. It’s private.”_

_He also understood that it was a_ male _someone, but after accusing her of betraying him with this other, she’d given him a look filled with revulsion._

_“No offense, but this guy’s like, a thousand years old,” she deadpanned._

_It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him. But she’d come to this world to protect him. She’d told him, not even joking, that if ninja came here they could rip his mind to shreds._

_And even now, he wondered if she was really going to America._

_He pushed aside his doubts and twirled her in the middle of the Shinjuku street, smiling as she laughed in surprise. He dipped her, refraining from kissing her in public._

~:~

“I thought about spying for Byakuran,” she sighed, settling on the Misty man’s desk and crossing her legs. “But then I remembered. I hate what he’s doing. I want this shit to end already.”

She sighed and leaned forward, into his face. The man didn’t react.

She blew on his face. Hair twitched on his forehead, and he looked up, his eyes sliding, meeting hers, but not seeming to see her.

She sighed again as the AC kicked on.

“I don’t want him _dead,_ he’s my soulmate. But I’m also dead, and it’s frustrating when I’m banished because _he_ keeps dismissing me! Then again, I’m like eight percent sure the _Vongola_ killed me, and if I was anyone else, I’d _so_ be in the vengeance business!”

The man kept writing.

“Gods above. I wish I could do a _lap dance –“_

The man’s pen faltered for a second before resuming.

Naruto kept talking, as though she didn’t hear that.

“- but I’m not _that_ bold, even though I’m a damn ghost.” Actually, she just couldn’t change. She sighed and vanished into the camera room.

With enough concentration, she could fuck with things. So fuck with the cameras she did, setting it on a timed loop – for five minutes, everything was on a loop.

She prowled up behind him. If he could see her, he’d react, and probably badly.

She jumped on him.

_“BOO!”_

He jumped violently, turning. His eyes were no longer one color – instead they were heterochromatic.

“Hello~” Naruto smiled. “I _knew_ you could hear me!”

His eyes narrowed.

“Cameras are off,” she said, smiling. “So, you a part of Vongola? Chiavarone? Varia? CEDEF? Gods, I hope it’s not Iemitsu’s branch, he’s a fucking _idiot.”_

“Tch.” He scowled. “I’m not from any branch. The Vongola simply hired me to do something I found interesting.”

“So, Vongola Mist Guardian.” She cocked her head, a smile appearing on her face. “Let me ask you a question.”

She slammed the possessed man into the wall with the telekinesis every pissed ghost seemed to have.

_“Did the Vongola kill me?”_

“No idea,” the man said, seemingly mostly unaffected. “How did you die?”

She sniffed, letting her telekinesis fade.

“Shot through the head,” she admitted, folding her arms. “I honestly dunno why I’m a ghost, though.”

That was a lie. She had an inkling, but _so_ wasn’t going to share.

The man hesitated. “Go to this address,” he said, writing down an address. “Maybe they can help.”

Naruto waited until he’d finished writing before picking up the paper and reading it before letting it burn. Most objects she touched had a bad habit of burning themselves to ash.

Maybe it had something to do with her being dead.

~:~

_“You insufferable, shitty, four-legged piece of demon shit!” Her yell at her cellular device made people wince. “I can’t believe you decided to LEAVE ITALY without telling me! I’ve been waiting for you for SIX. FUCKING HOURS!”_

_She threw her phone in anger to the middle of the street, and it hit someone._

_“Ow!”_

_“Oh my gods!” Horror-stricken, she ran over to the man sitting there. He had the strangest white hair and beautiful purple eyes. “I’m_ so _sorry for throwing my cellular device at you!”_

_Said phone lay on the pavement, no longer usable._

_“Ah, it’s alright,” the man smiled. “Seeing as you’re my soulmate and all.”_

_Naruto froze. “Eh?!”_

_“You said my words,” he groaned. “Did I not say yours?”_

_“Maybe we can talk in private?” she suggested, holding out her hand._

_He grasped it. Her back tingled._

_“Yeah, you’re my soulmate, just… It’s complicated.” She smiled and picked up the remains of her phone. “Can we talk in private?”_

~:~

Byakuran popped some marshmallows in his mouth, glancing down at the screen.

There they are. Chibi-Vongola, running through Merone Base.

“Don’t do it.”

It’s hilarious to him, that she’s sitting there, telling him not to kill them. Not to make Shoichi-kun stop them. She was acting like his _conscious._

“Why not, Naru?” He hummed. The World’s Greatest Hitman was allied with Vongola. He’d die, of course, but first he had to finish his plan. A plan not even his mind seemed to have his ghost know.

“It’s not worth it.”

She seems… _Tired._

“It will be,” he promised.

She vanished as the door opened.

Byakuran switched personas instantly. “Oh, Kikyo-kun!” he greeted one of his Funeral Wreaths. “Where is Ghost?”

Kikyo looked mildly annoyed. “Doing… Something. I don’t care.” The malachite-haired man set down a folder. “The cameras were looped for five minutes, someone messed with them.”

Byakuran’s eyes narrowed. This was unexpected.

“Did someone break in?”

Kikyo shook his head. “No. Flame readings suggest… Sir, they suggest _you_ messed with the controls. Ghost was with me when the cameras were messed with.”

“I’ve been here,” Byakuran closed his eyes, pressing his fingers to his head. “Anything else the Flame readings say?”

“No,” Kikyo replied, shaking his head. He then paused. “You haven’t… _Left,_ have you?”

Byakuran frowned at Kikyo. “Why would I leave when I have all I need _right here?”_

His tone was silky and dangerous.

“It must have been Ghost, then. Forgive me, Byakuran-sama.”

Kikyo left.

Byakuran frowned.

~:~

Naruto stepped outside the base and thought, _really hard,_ on the place she wanted to be right then.

The transition would take days, but oh well.

She stumbled as she appeared in the middle of a hallway.

Doors slammed shut. Naruto tensed as spikes dropped –

_And went through her._

“Right, I’m dead. I have the consistency of… Nothing, most likely.” Naruto ghosted through the rooms, using her inconsistent materialization/dematerialization/flying abilities to her advantage.

Still. Alarms were _fucking annoying._

She found herself in what appeared to be a briefing room, where everyone was tense and ready.

“-here,” a bald man said in a quick voice, sweating. Everyone tensed some more.

Naruto’s attention, however, was caught by the Merone Base, now having moved from Japan to Italy.

“Huh. Never knew he planned that. Guess I’ve kinda been stuck in his office for too long… Or wandering around doing nothing important. Too bad, I would’ve slapped sense into my _dearest soulmate_ long before now.” She sighed, closing her eyes. “Byakuran. You _fucking_ idiot.” She opened them and resumed perusal of the board. “Also, if you could hear me, I’d say you should put more forces into Byakuran’s main base. While I’ve _heard_ tales of Rasiel through Byakuran asking me who he should put in charge, he’s not a threat so I’d ignore this castle altogether.”

“WHO ARE YOU?”

Ignoring the strange outburst, Naruto hummed and whirled, pointing a finger heavenward.

“ALSO!” she brought it down to land in front of the Vongola Decimo look-alike’s face. “You can’t hear me probably but you _really_ need to step your game up! Byakuran _will_ kill the baby over there for his pacifier… Why does he even _need_ the pacifiers anyway?” Naruto blinked at the baby. “Unless… They store Flames in ‘em.”

“Congratulations, you’re the first one to guess that after seeing them,” the baby said with a smile. “Now who the hell are you?”

His chameleon formed into a gun.

“Wait a minute…” Naruto blinked and looked around, then slowly waved her hand in front of the baby Decimo. “You can… YOU CAN SEE ME?”

“We wouldn’t ask if we couldn’t, haha!” the Rain Guardian said with an eyesmile that looked a _lot_ like her old sense.

“That’s weird, but I guess it could have something to do with your time travel,” Naruto tapped her chin.

“Why’s it weird?” the baby Decimo looked fucking adorable. _Gods,_ Naruto just wanted to squish his cheeks between her hands.

“Because I’m dead,” Naruto deadpanned.

~:~

Tsunayoshi swallowed as Giannini pulled up death records six years ago.

“Uzumaki Naruto,” the supposedly dead blonde supplied. “Nineteen years of age, born in Shinjuku. Died in Shinjuku.”

“She said Uzumaki Naruto, born in Shinjuku, died in Shinjuku,” Tsuna said, his voice quivering. “Nineteen years old. Blue eyes, blonde hair, six scars on her face like whiskers on a cat.”

“Or dog,” the girl ‘helpfully’ supplied. “I like dogs. Ooh! Or foxes.”

“One result,” the apparently unseeing Giannini said, turning the computer. Tsuna took a look at the picture and blanched – it was her death picture, the picture of her dead face. The file included the name – Uzumaki Naruto – birthday – October 10 – and deathdate – October 10.

_Known family: Gessou Byakuran, fiancé. Other family unknown._

A picture of her highschool graduation, a brightly beaming seventeen-year-old, made his stomach seize.

“Wait, is that – Is that Namimori High?”

Naruto tilted her head. “I moved to Shinjuku after Byakuran and I came back from Italy. I died almost two years after I met him!”

“Ah, yes. A mafia hit, I presume?” Reborn asked, eyeing her.

She shrugged. “I dunno,” she shrugged again. “I just know that Byakuran was running from them, and I went to help him ‘cause he’d been grazed by a bullet, and then I was dead. I dunno if it was Vongola. I realized I was a fucking _ghost_ after I tried to stop him from taking over the Gessou Famiglia and killing some of those babies with that weird atmosphere thing.” Her jaw clenched. She looked down at her lap, taking breaths. “He didn’t listen to me. I learned he could hear me, but he thought –“ she choked a bit. “He thought I was just a figment of his imagination. Every time he _dismissed me_ I was ejected from his general vicinity. I’m _tired_ of watching him ignore me like I’m nothing, like I don’t _actually exist!”_

A pipe burst.

~:~

_“I’m part of the mafia.”_

_He blurted that out on their second date, in her cozy little villa she was renting. The blonde blinked at him._

_“Oh, that’s nice.” She sipped at her tea as Byakuran just stared at her._

_“That’s… nice?”_

_“Mmm.” She smiled at him. “I’m a shinobi from another world.”_

_Her serious response made him think she was laughing at him._

_He set his teacup down and stood._

_“Byakuran, I don’t have soulmark words.” Byakuran stilled. “In my world, it’s a picture. A picture that belongs to your soulmate, is theirs irrevocably. When a soulmate touches their soulmate, the entire area it covers… It doesn’t_ hurt, _exactly. But it’s not the most pleasant feeling unless the bond is fully integrated.” She stood and took off her sweatshirt. “When you touched me that first time…”_

_She lifted her shirt and turned. Wings, one white and one black, both burning with Sky Flames, were revealed in stark color._

_He pressed on them. She shivered; as she did, he tilted his head and his eyes widened as the Sky Flames seemed to shift in the wings._

_“Wow,” he said, removing his hand. “You_ have _to be from another world. Why are you here?”_

_His alien soulmate scowled at him._

_“What?”_

_“I’m not a fuckin’ alien, Byakuran! I_ can _lip read!”_

_Oh shit. Oops._

_“I’m here to protect someone,” she said, in answer to his words. “He’s powerful in his own right. If someone kills me, he’s able to live, but if someone kills him and finds me we’re_ both _dead. We can’t have that. And yes, technically speaking, I_ am _an alien, but please be less… Ugh. Just don’t speak that word around me, it irritates the hell out of me.”_

_Byakuran nodded, a smile coming onto his face. “I have an outer space person as my soulmate!”_

_Naruto facepalmed, letting her shirt fall down._

~:~

“I didn’t kill you.”

Reborn the Hitman’s words made Naruto glance at him.

“How would you know?”

“Because,” Reborn said flatly, “that shot didn’t come from a sniper rifle. If you were my target, I would’ve used the sniper rifle outside unless I was specifically ordered not to, _if_ you were my target. Therefore, you were not the target, which also means _I did not kill you._ Plus, no matter who it is, I like looking my targets in the _eye_ when I assassinate them, or at least see their eyes. Never would I shoot someone in the back. It’s a cowardly act.”

Naruto hummed to herself. “Well, that means…” She stared into space before snorting. “Wow. _Wow._ I was shot by _mistake!”_ She started to laugh – until Giannini re-entered the room with Spanner.

The green clad man’s eyes instantly zeroed in on Naruto.

“So that’s the ghost that has Byakuran’s Flames? Interesting.”

Naruto sweatdropped. “Can _everyone_ but the baldie see me?” she bemoaned.

“Apparently,” Spanner replied dryly. “Why are you here?” he demanded.

“Trying to find the piece of shit family that killed me and destroyed my impending nuptials with my beloved soulmate Byakuran, you?” Naruto asked with a smile that was like her baring her teeth.

“…only here because Tsuna-kun hasn’t finished his training,” Spanner yawned.

~:~

Naruto slid into Byakuran’s computer. Since she knew him, she knew his passcode.

The cameras, once more, had been screwed with and Byakuran was taking care of it. Naruto had a limited amount of time before – _aha._

Bases downloaded onto a drive that Spanner had fireproofed and tuned in with… Science mumbo jumbo. He _had_ said that ‘everything bursting into flames’ was a problem that Naruto herself had, not something that was normal with ghosts… Not, as Spanner commented, that Spanner had any experience with ghosts.

In other words, Spanner made it so that Naruto could help the Varia.

Yay!

She deleted all traces of her hacking, took out the flash drive and, as she heard footsteps, set her bare hand on the laptop.

It turned to ash.

She vanished as the doorknob turned –

And screamed as a bullet sailed through her.

“Rikudo Sennin’s Sixth Path! YOU CAN’T KILL ME, I’M DEAD!” she bellowed as someone attempted to stab her, slice her in half, electrocute her – Irritation flashed through her and every one but the one aiming the gun at her got their asses pinned to the wall. At that moment, she had no idea her eyes blazed Kyuubi-red. “There. Now we can all _talk like adults,”_ she growled, stalking over to the desk. “Here’s a list of Millefiore bases. The one you’re going after is nothing but an embarrassment to Byakuran’s forces.”

She set the damn drive down and scowled at the man.

“What’re you waiting for, trash?” the man snapped.

“Waiting for you to say _thank you,_ it’s basic fucking manners,” Naruto snapped at him.

“I like your balls, trash.”

Naruto rolled her eyes.

~:~

“I did it for a reason _you_ wouldn’t know about!” Byakuran hissed. “I did _everything,_ took the Pacifiers – I _need_ the Vongola Rings to _bring her back!”_

“What.”

The image of his soulmate gasped out that word, her bangs covering her eyes.

“You did…” Her hands clenched into fists. “All of th _is.”_ Her voice broke. “To bring… _to bring me back to life?”_

“Because you Vongola –“

A punch, coming from his soulmate, landed on his solar plexus. Byakuran flew backwards.

He met _livid_ red eyes.

“YOU _FUCKING MORON!”_ She screamed, her chakra exploding around her. “I _DON’T WANT TO BE ALIVE! NOT IN THIS WORLD!”_ She glared at him. “ _NOT WITH YOU **KILLING PEOPLE** INDISCRIMINATELY.”_

“You…” he gagged before finishing. “You’re really there?”

“OF _COURSE I AM!”_ She raged. “I’ve been here _ALL THIS DAMN TIME_ and you’ve IGNORED ME for the last FIVE DAMN YEARS.” She looked ready to cry. “You’ve caused pointless pain and suffering because you’re an _idiot._ I don’t want to live in a world you sacrificed other people to make!”

“But –“

“Because _that’s what happened to mine.”_

Her voice broke. She collapsed on her knees.

Byakuran beat his wings to land next to her.

“I –“

She grabbed him, forcing him down.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, closing her eyes.

He understood.

“It’s okay, sweetheart.”

Sky Flames erased them.

~:~

_“Promise me one thing, Tsunayoshi. If you happen to see me… Give my younger self this book.”_

_It was a book. An old one._

_“There isn’t another copy, and it was handed to me by a man with a checkered mask after my death. He said I’d need it some day; I guess I’m handing it to you to give to me because it’s the only thing I’ve kept since I died.”_

_“Where did you –“ Her expression stated very clearly that he did NOT WANT TO KNOW._

_“And really, get the fucking Gessou Famiglia off Byakuran’s back when he disappears. I’d owe ya one.” She winked at him._

_“If we win tonight, I’ll do it,” Tsuna promised._

~:~

Tsunayoshi hesitated at the gates to Namimori High School. He peered anxiously over the heads of the students, until he saw the one he was looking for.

“Uzumaki-senpai!”

The yellow head changed course, stepping out of the flow of traffic.

This Naruto was far different than her picture at graduation suggested.

“Do I know you?” she questioned suspiciously.

Tsuna swallowed and shoved out the book. Startled, she grabbed it.

“You told me to give it back to you!” he blurted before running off.

Only Naruto noticed the letter drop from the book pages.

~:~

_Idiot me,_

_GET A FUCKING GRIP. You’re going to meet your fucking soulmate soon. You need to stop WORRYING about Kurama, he’s fine dammit. WORRY ABOUT YOUR GODSDAMNED SELF._

_I don’t have all the answers, I died before I could get them. Get that grip. They’re dead. Don’t let this chance be passed up like Iruka did._

_If he asks you, marry him. Dammit, marry him RIGHT THEN AND THERE, DAMMIT._

_Your stupid older self who got herself killed,_

_Naruto._

_PS: DON’T. DIE. THIS. TIME. YOU. IDIOT._

Naruto scoffed, stuffing the letter in the book with a snap before throwing it.

“OW!”

“Dear gods!” She flushed as she realized the book had actually landed… not before a cellular device had hit him in the face. “I’m so sorry for throwing my cellular device at you!”

She held out her hand as clear shock played on the man’s face.

He took it –

Naruto stared at him for a moment as he stood.

“Byakuran…” He jerked and stared at her, openmouthed and ready to speak –

A loud slap was heard.

“You fucking idiot! Don’t _ever_ do that crazy shit again!”


End file.
